Review of Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) by Kevin G — 21 Oct 2008

Great malice comes from a place of great insecurity. Written by Roger Waters, this is a scary ride into the psychosis of a man slowly going insane. One of the most interesting aspects is Waters' point of how people who commit the worst crimes against humanity are secretly the most afraid and insecure of all.

This fear ultimately transforms into hate, a hate of themselves against which they lash out. In this case, Pink never comes to terms with the loss of his father who never came home from WWII, and is tormented by his teacher at school who tries to strip away individuality from the children; the reason for the teacher's anger is because he's completely emasculated by his wife at home.

The combination of animation and film, the surreal imagery, often disturbing, perfectly flows with the music from The Wall which is, of course, phenomenal. The combination of the imagery to music truly feels like we're watching a Rock Opera, and despite the almost complete lack of dialogue, there's a very real story with characters the viewer becomes invested deeply in, thanks largely to Geldof's brave, hold nothing back performance.

It's safe to say that Pink Floyd's - The Wall is nothing if not a true work of revolutionary art.